Your Excellency Mr. Rupiah Banda, the Fourth Republican President of Zambia, President of the Zambia China Friendship Association,

Hon. Dr. Brian Mushimba, Minister of Higher Education,

Your Worship Mr. Miles Sampa, Mayor of Lusaka,

Prof. Luke Mumba, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zambia,

Directors from the Belt and Road Joint Research Centre,

Distinguished representatives from Chinese enterprises,

Friends from the Press,

Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

It is a great pleasure for me to attend today’s launch ceremony of the Belt and Road Joint Research Centre. First of all, please allow me to extend my heartfelt congratulations on the establishment of the Research Center.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The year 2019 is of significant importance for the bilateral relations between our two countries, which marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of China-Zambia diplomatic relations. The establishment of the research center comes at a no better time than today. As a well-known institution, the University of Zambia is one of the first institutions to conduct academic cooperation with Chinese universities. With the joint efforts of China and Zambia, the Confucius Institute of the UNZA keeps promoting the teaching and learning of the Chinese language and introducing the Chinese culture to the Zambian people since its establishment in 2010. It has become an important platform for promoting China-Zambia cultural exchanges and cooperation. Today’s launching of the Belt and Road Joint Research Center at the UNZA is of great significance. It helps a great deal to open up a new field for China-Zambia people-to-people and think tank exchanges.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in the past century. Economic globalization suffers setbacks; world economic growth remains sluggish; and the international situation is exposed to prominent unstable factors. Faced with profound and huge changes, many people feel perplexed, and some countries are looking for new paths for development and are exploring the way of global economic governance.

Having an insight into the overall international situation, His Excellency President Xi Jinping of China, put forward the Belt and Road initiative. It is a Chinese approach to meet common challenges and improve global economic governance, with the goal of pushing all countries to strengthen synergies between their development strategies, shed light on connectivity, deepen practical cooperation and achieve common development. The BRI not only catalyzes China's reform and opening up, but also takes a clear-cut stand in upholding the main theme of building an open world economy.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to share with you some of our ideas.

First, the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits are in line with trend of the times. Maintaining the common interest and destinies of all countries, having adequate communication and consultation on international matters are the only ways to achieve peace and development in today’s world. We should pull together in times of difficulty and achieve win-win results in the face of opportunities.

President Xi Jinping pointed out that "high-quality development" is the goal and direction of the BRI development. High quality means to combine the advantages of all parties into a joint force through bilateral cooperation, tripartite cooperation and multilateral cooperation. It means to adhere to the principals of openness, integrity and promote green infrastructure construction, green investment, and green finance. It means to ensure economic, social, financial and environmental sustainability of projects which are also in line with international rules and standards. China will remain a close friend, reliable partner and good brother of Africa and Zambia.

President Xi Jinping emphasized that China follows a five-no approach in our relations with Africa: no interference in African countries’ pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in African countries’ internal affairs; no imposition of our will on African countries; no attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa. The BRI and FOCAC are not “traps” but “pies”. In China-Africa cooperation, China is willing to discuss with African countries to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Second, connectivity targets meet the needs of all countries and regional development strategies. We need to develop high-quality, sustainable, resilient, affordable, inclusive and accessible infrastructure projects, as infrastructure plays as the bedrock of connectivity. We need to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, say no to protectionism. We need to seize opportunities created by digital, networked and smart development and foster new growth drivers and explore new development pathway. We need to build bridges for exchanges and mutual learning among different cultures in order to facilitate multi-faceted people-to-people exchanges.

African integration is a long-term expectation and desire of African countries and people. It is necessary to realize the interconnection of transportation, energy and communication, promote regional industrial trade and investment cooperation, and integrate into the global supply chain, industrial chain and value chain, which are of vital importance to Africa's development.

Third, During the FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2018, nearly 150 cooperation agreements were signed between China and Africa, and China provided US$60 billion of financial support to Africa with “Eight Initiatives”. At the 2nd BRF, the Chinese side has put together a list of 283 concrete deliverables reached by the participating parties. The first China Africa economic and Trade Expo has been held in Changsha, China this year. Senior officials and business representatives have participated this event.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Zambia is a natural extension of the Belt and Road Initiative, it is also an important participant in the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation. Under the above two frameworks, the Chinese side has always insisted the principles of sincerity, practical results, affinity and good faith in the cooperation between China and Zambia, and jointly promote Zambia’s national development and people’s livelihood.

In 2018, the China-Zambia bilateral trade volume has reached 5 billion US dollars for the first time with a year-on-year growth of 33.9%. Zambia has a trade surplus of more than 3 billion US dollars. China's direct investment in Zambia maintained a constant growth with an increase of 327 million US dollars, once again ranking second among African countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and FOCAC have already become the focus of global attention and two major platforms for China-Africa and China-Zambia practical cooperation. The complementarity between the BRI and the development plans or cooperation initiatives of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations and the African Union has been accelerated. The development strategies of the participating countries has been enhanced with the BRI. From the Eurasian continent to Africa, the Americas and Oceania, BRI cooperation has opened up new space for global economic growth, produced new platforms for international trade and investment and offered new ways for improving global economic governance. Indeed, this initiative has helped improve people’s lives in countries involved and created more opportunities for common prosperity. What we have achieved amply demonstrates that Belt and Road cooperation has both generated new opportunities for the development of all participating countries and opened up new horizon for China’s development as well.

Africa is part of the historical and natural extension of the BRI. Until now, China has signed MOUs with more than 40 African countries, including Zambia, on the joint-construction of the BRI. Under the framework of the BRI and FOCAC, we have made tremendous progress in promoting policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and closer people-to-people ties.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At present, China and Zambia are both at an important stage of economic construction and social development. The BRI could be synergized with Zambia’s Seventh National Development Plan, thus providing an important win-win opportunity and further deepening bilateral relations between the two countries. This Joint Research Center is the first such research institute in Zambia. It will surely set a new model and benchmark for improving high-level educational exchanges and strengthening the synergy of our development strategies.

We are willing to work with Zambia to take advantage of this Joint Research Centre to continuously expand cooperation in the fields of culture and education, and maintain close exchanges to lay a foundation for mutual understanding, to bridge mutual learning and contribute to the China-Zambia friendship. It is also my hope that experts and scholars of the research centre will make full use of your great talent and wisdom to provide strong intellectual support for jointly building the BRI.

Thank you!